Haagut got to his feet shakily. He spat blood into the snow before weakly trudging over to Cleatus and patting him. Using what magic he had left to close his wounds. Cleatus gave a wet cough before rising up onto all fours.

“Did we kill it?” He muttered.

“Y-yeah, it’s dead.” Haagut nodded. Cleatus looked over a shoulder at the corpse of the dragon; blending into the snow. The blizzard around them started to shift. Along with it came a portly dwarf with long black hair that tangled with an equally long beard. The dwarf swore up and down about how stupid dragons and magic was as they came up to Haagut and Cleatus.

“Oh, hey Odelia” Shaynen waved as he walked up behind the dwarf. He nodded at Shaynen irritably.

“Is that permanent?” Haagut asked. The dwarven man shrugged.

“We’ll find out.” He said. Clearing his throat and shaking his head at the unfamiliar sound. Cleatus dug through his bag and pulled out a health potion. Tossing it to Haagut before draining two others in his bag.

“Is everyone okay?” Cleatus asked getting to his feet,

“Okay? I’m so much BETTER than okay!” Shaynen vibrated in the snow. Cleatus got up and drew his knife. Turning and moving between the dwarven Odelia and Shaynen to the dragon.

“Uh… right,” Shaynen watched oddly. “Uh. Did you… Cleatus what are you doing?” Cleatus walked to the stomach of the dragon. He stabbed the knife into the pit of the stomach and sliced the dragon up to the collarbone.

“It’s cold, we can wait out the storm in here while it’s still warm.” Cleatus grabbed the top of the incision and opened up the cut. Spilling the steaming guts from the recently dead creature.

“There’s lots of respectful things you can do with corpses,” Shaynen pointed out with a deadpan expression. “I don’t think that’s one of them.”

“Hey, survival is survival.” Cleatus pointed the tip of his blade at Shaynen. He climbed into the corpse, leaving the party speechless.

“Uh. That’s so gross.” Shaynen shook his head. But his excitement rebounded quickly. He clapped his hands loudly.

“Guys! Did you see it? Shaynen excitedly bounced.

“See what?” Haagut immediately pulled his spear up and turned paranoid.

“I had a shape! I got a shape! Do you know what this means?!”

“No, not really no.” Haagut shook his head.

“It means I succeeded! I did it! I did exactly what I set out to do! I could return home now and prove everyone who didn’t believe in me wrong!” Shaynen’s voice was echoing around the mountain. “I mean, I don’t exactly know what it was. I couldn’t really. SEE it very well… but that doesn't matter!”:

“I don’t.. Is that good?” Haagut asked.

“Yes! Uhm… see uh.. You know what the Astral plane is right?” Shaynen asked. Haagut shook his head. “Oh.. It’s like… it’s this separate plane from here and it’s a lot like dreaming. The monastery I come from practice this… system where we can… we like... peek into it. And these astral beings, we call them guides, they can attach themselves to us. Like when a god or higher being blesses you or chooses you to be a hero for them.”

“Or you make a pact with a demon,” Odelia said absently. Shaynen shot a glare at him. Odelia looked up in surprise. “What? Like warlocks? They make pacts with demons for power.” Shaynen searched the different colored eyes of Dwarven Odelia.

“SO, you got one of your own now?” Haagut asked. Trying to break up the tension.

“Yes!” Shaynen chirped, turning back to Haagut.

“You guys coming in? It’s warm in here!” Cleatus shouted out of the dragon’s stomach.

“No!” The party yelled back.

“Suit yourselves,” CLeatus reclined within the warmth. As he stretched out his sore limbs he felt something hard settle down on the top of his head. He grabbed it and opened up the incision to see what it was. Finding a little crystal white gem identical in everyway but color to the emerald dragon heart he had. He smiled and tucked it away with the other one. He felt outside movement suddenly jostling about.

“Hey, hey!” He called as he poked his head out of the corpse again. “What are you doing?” Odelia had his knife out and was prying a few dragon scales free, Haagut on the other side was doing something similar. A few feet away Shaynen was already stowing away two with a happy little hum.

“Dragon scales,” Haagut said simply.

“Yeh, I’m thinking about getting me some fancy dragon shit like they have.” Odelia gestured at Shaynen and Haagut.

“Well be careful! You puncture the skin then the inside’ll get cold faster!” Cleatus snapped.

“I think we should just start down the mountain,” Shaynen said. “We could definitely reach the fort by sundown and there’s no dragon there anymore to stop us from camping there for the night.” Dwarven Odelia’s eyes lit up.

“The horde,” he whispered. He turned to Haagut. “The horde! The dragon’s horde!” Haagut’s eyes got wide and his jaw dropped.

“The diamonds, my god!” Haagut exclaimed.

“Exactly!” Odelia agreed. “We should hurry up and get over there before someone else gets to the horde first!” CLeatus popped out of the dragon carcass.

“Well let’s get going then!” He said. Striding down the mountain.

“You wanna, clean yourself up first?” Shaynen winced.

“It’s a dragon deterrent,” Cleatus said. “Y’see any living dragons about?”

“N-no?” Shaynen looked around curiously.

“Then you’re welcome.” Cleatus grinned.

“It’s very uncomfortable for you to be smiling like that while covered in blood and guts.” Shaynen shifted. Cleatus laughed and led the party down the mountain, back toward the fort.